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Should I Buy?

ScottNugent

Top Contributor
Hey Guys,

I'm looking at a .com.au domain, two words (both six letters). Involved in technology and education.



What do you think? Yes? No? Tips?

Cheers
 

Ash

Top Contributor
The exact match term has a lot of competition which could make your job difficult to rank. Does it have a decent CPC?
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
The stats are very low, 4-5 searches a day, is there really a good chance of someone paying a premium for it?
 

Ash

Top Contributor
Hi Scott, on the right hand side just above where it displays the stats there should be a menu option called 'columns'. If you click that you can then select which columns to display in the results - just tick the check box for 'approximate cpc'.

I generally also filter out results that have a cpc of less than $1 by using the filter keywords section under the advanced filters and options section (same place where you choose search location).
 

paz

Member
Wait until you find something over 1,000 local exacts then start to think about it.
 

joe

Top Contributor
I recently acquired a name with similar metrics. If I was making a decision based purely on the numbers from the Google KWT, or was just speculating on something I thought I could resell later then I wouldn't have bothered with it. However, I already have established sites in closely related niches with a few years worth of traffic/revenue stats and a clear idea of how to develop/promote it.

As an aside, what do you guys think about the "competition" metric? It technically means advertiser competition which on it's own has no bearing on the competitiveness of the organic SERPs, even though that would be a natural conclusion. I could be wrong but I tend to think that a lot of competition between advertisers is a good thing as it means you're more likely to squeeze a higher CPC out of them.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
As an aside, what do you guys think about the "competition" metric? It technically means advertiser competition which on it's own has no bearing on the competitiveness of the organic SERPs, even though that would be a natural conclusion. I could be wrong but I tend to think that a lot of competition between advertisers is a good thing as it means you're more likely to squeeze a higher CPC out of them.

Yes, definitely a good thing in terms of selling the domain. Probably a good sign for development as well.
 

Ash

Top Contributor
As an aside, what do you guys think about the "competition" metric? It technically means advertiser competition which on it's own has no bearing on the competitiveness of the organic SERPs, even though that would be a natural conclusion. I could be wrong but I tend to think that a lot of competition between advertisers is a good thing as it means you're more likely to squeeze a higher CPC out of them.

Thanks for raising this Joe. I've been targeting domains with about mid-level competition on the basis that there would be a lot of developed sites targeting these keywords and potentially harder to rank for. Based on your comments and Snoopy's reply it seems I might be mistaken on this.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Thanks for raising this Joe. I've been targeting domains with about mid-level competition on the basis that there would be a lot of developed sites targeting these keywords and potentially harder to rank for. Based on your comments and Snoopy's reply it seems I might be mistaken on this.

I think the more competition the harder it is going to be to rank. But those areas of high competition are likely that way because they are very profitable areas in my view. There is going to be some "untapped" areas to some extent but overall I'd much rather own a domain in a high competition area than low.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
I'm looking at a .com.au domain, two words (both six letters). Involved in technology and education.

What do you think? Yes? No? Tips?
Without know the domain name, on those metrics alone I would normally lean towards yes if you are willing to also develop.

If you are just looking for domain resale - then I'd say no.

I generally also filter out results that have a cpc of less than $1 by using the filter keywords section under the advanced filters and options section (same place where you choose search location).
I don't know if this is prudent.

I often see decent topics (ie valuable retail product) with terrible CPC - but this sometimes just reflective of an industry that is poorly informed about online marketing.

ie if the margin on the end product is $200, but the CPC is only $0.20 it is only a matter of time before more businesses in that industry realise that $0.20 is a small price to pay for a chance at making $200.

However, I already have established sites in closely related niches with a few years worth of traffic/revenue stats and a clear idea of how to develop/promote it.
I agree.

If already have a foot in the industry and am already making a return on similar sites then I'm normally a lot more willing to buy.

As an aside, what do you guys think about the "competition" metric? It technically means advertiser competition which on it's own has no bearing on the competitiveness of the organic SERPs, even though that would be a natural conclusion. I could be wrong but I tend to think that a lot of competition between advertisers is a good thing as it means you're more likely to squeeze a higher CPC out of them.
I think the exact same.

I actually think competition is critical to buying a domain. Who cares what the search volumes are if you have nothing to sell.

I had to spend thousands of dollars developing a number of sites that get a good amount of traffic but have a terrible CPC to realise competition to fill your ad inventory is critical.

It's especially critical if you are monetising via AdSense. A lot of businesses won't advertise on the content network so your pool of advertisers will automatically be smaller that the CPC that the GKT suggests because that is the CPC required to rank well on Google not to mention that Google will also be taking a slice of the pie per click via AdSense.

On an actually website running AdSense you might find you get a max CPC that is half or a third of the CPC suggested, and even then that will only be on the top advertisers and you dont' want the rest of the ads only generating 5 cents a click.

It's hard to make money on a site monetised by AdSense with 5 cents a click no matter how much traffic you get.

I think the more competition the harder it is going to be to rank.
No doubt this is true to a degree, but I don't think there is a definite correlation.

The same could also be said about CPC - the higher the CPC the more likely there will be strong competition because people are willing to spend lots of money for traffic.

But those areas of high competition are likely that way because they are very profitable areas in my view. There is going to be some "untapped" areas to some extent but overall I'd much rather own a domain in a high competition area than low.
Agreed.

At the end of the day it's better to have a domain that has high CPC and competition because you know it's valuable to a lot of people and there is lots of money in the industry.

Okie dokes. Well I won't purchase, but the site was "schoollaptop.com.au" for keywords "school laptop".
It's not bad.

My personal valuation method values it at around $50 (I normally look for domains that are worth at least $100), so it's probably not worth registering for resale, but I could appreciate if someone was willing to buy it for development.
 

ScottNugent

Top Contributor
Awesome post Chris! Very interesting points raised there :)

I think personally I'd rather work my normal job for money, and time filling :p Just found it interesting, due to the government putting laptops in all the schools now; might take off.
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
I think personally I'd rather work my normal job for money, and time filling
I like your logic.

I have a far greater passion for economics than I do domains and I can never understand those that invest huge amounts of time, energy and money into side investments for zero to marginal returns, when they could make perfectly good money working their day job and accepting average returns in cash, property or stocks.
 

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